Say it isn't so. Of all the deaths 'Game of Thrones' has inflicted on us since the show started, this one was the worst. Here's why. [WARNING: Major spoilers ahead!]
Game of Thrones fans are mad as hell and we aren't going to take it -- after a season full of twist, turns and terrifying deaths, the fifth season finale hit fans where it hurt with perhaps the most gut wrenching death yet. And if this one sticks, if this character truly met their ultimate end in the season finale, then the GoT creators have made a catastrophic mistake.
Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) should NOT have been killed off. When George R.R. Martin's fifth book, A Dance with Dragons, ends, Jon Snow has been stabbed and he's lying in the snow, bleeding and mortally wounded -- but he's not necessarily dead. As in dead, dead. After all, we've seen several key GoT characters appear to be lost causes in the books, only to have miraculously survived their apparent doom.
Jon Snow's Death On 'Game Of Thrones': Why Killing Him Off Is A Disaster
Tyrion almost drowns and is pulled from a river at the very last minute by Jorah Mormont. Catelyn Stark has her throat slashed and is thrown into a river, only to rise from the dead and have a second coming as Lady Stoneheart. Mance Rayder appears to have been burnt at the stake, but then magically is spirited away by the witch Melisandre. And then there's Daenerys, who should have been burned to death on a funeral pyre, and yet is reborn as the Mother of Dragons.
But having Jon Snow's actor, Kit Harrington, give an interview to Entertainment Weekly in which he says, "I'm dead. I'm not coming back next season," appears to have actually put a definitive nail in the Night Watch leader's coffin. Furthermore, Game of Thrones director David Nutter couldn't have been clearer on Jon Snow's fate when he was asked by Deadline, "So Jon Snow is truly dead now, correct?" Nutter replied: "Yes."
Well, if the Game of Thrones TV powers that be have truly killed off Jon forever, then they have made a mammoth mistake. Bottom line -- the series has to have enough characters left, that its devoted fans care about, so that they'll tune in for season 6. Game of Thrones has already whacked a troop of beloved and seemingly essential characters -- Ned Stark, Rob Stark, Shireen Baratheon, Ygritte, Mance Raydar, Oberyn Martell, Catelyn Stark and Khal Drogo. Oh, and should we also be mourning Sansa Stark and Theon Greyjoy, who may have just leapt to their suicidal deaths, and Myrcella Baratheon, who appears to have been poisoned by the vengeful Ellaria?!
'Game Of Thrones': Who's Left To Love On This Show?
Now, these are just the deaths of GoT characters that fans actually liked and were attached to. If you start adding up the characters who've bit the dust that everyone hated on -- Tywin Lannister, Lysa Arryn, Joffrey Lannister, Viserys Targaryen, Gregor Clegane AKA The Mountain, and Hizdahr zo Loraq, plus numerous others like Robert and Renly Baratheon, that fans didn't have time to develop strong feelings for -- GoT is a veritable killing field.
It's gotten to the point now with Jon Snow's death that there are very few faces anywhere in the Seven Kingdoms that we have left to root for. Yes, Peter Dinklage is a great actor and Tyrion is a fascinating and capable character, but he can't carry the show for at least two more seasons. Daenerys has been boring as hell all season and if she's already lost Drogon, she's rapidly losing dragons without even having crossed into Westeros.
No one else could possibly be fit to take the Iron Throne and to even comprehend the world-destroying danger of the White Walkers. Killing off Jon Snow doesn't just rob us of one of the smartest, most empathetic characters left in the series; it also gets rid of GoT's one remaining hunk, and you can't underestimate the power of hotness. Come on -- we have to have at least one handsome heartthrob prince to look at. What's the point of a fictional kingdom without a royal hunk?
Jon Snow Really Dead On 'GoT'? -- Bring Him Back!
Then, there's the mystery of Jon Snow's parentage, which hasn't yet been revealed and which could have made him a true contender for the Iron Throne himself. Isn't he the lovechild son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark? That's a hugely popular fan theory which makes a huge amount of sense. But with parentage like that, it's a complete waste to kill off Snow when he has so much more opportunity for fascinating greatness.
Wouldn't it be far better to have Jon Snow eventually come face to face with his aunt, Daenerys, than to have finished him off with mutinous knife wounds in the snow? Think of the possibilities of their interactions, especially when Targaryens also have a history of marrying close relatives. Game of Thrones directors could be splitting hairs when they say Jon Snow is dead. Targaryens tend to revive after dying, like Daenerys, and Melisandre is at the Wall with her fiery magic.
Snow could also have transported into his wolf alter ego, Ghost; he did whisper Ghost's name as he lay "dying". But if he is truly and utterly gone for good, GoT directors may have finally jumped the shark, or the wolf, without Snow, a true hero. Westeros may now be too empty for fans to tune in. Let's all pray to the Red God, R'hllor, or Ned Stark's Old Gods of the Forest, that Jon Snow survives in some form -- otherwise his death is a disaster!